When Absence Comes to Matter: The Old Calendarist Church’s Strive for Survival in 20th Century Romania

Absence is made present through objects, images, texts, or thoughts and, through various practices, absence also has agency. Absence was often a reality which Old Calendarists had to endure due to the intrusive character of the secret police: their churches were destroyed, they were deprived of their religious books, photographs, icons, and even religious leaders. These actions created an absence which, in turn, I argue in this article, inspired the Old Calendarist’s strive for survival. Today, the secret police archives in Romania store many of these absences, be they objects, images or life stories, that could become presences and continue, complete, or simply end some chapters in the histories of the Old Calendarist Church. In this study I will offer examples that convey the manners in which the Old Calendarist Church managed to navigate through and make use of these absences in order to survive persecution, highlighting the value of the secret police archives as sites or spaces of recovery from absence and loss.